Wounded Warriors

This week in class we read and discussed two pieces about disabilities; by people with disabilities.  The first piece, written by Nancy Mairs, titled "Disability" was published by The New York Times in 1987.  The second piece, was by Matthew Soyster and was called "Living Under Circe's Spell."  One of the main goals these works were attempting to convey, was the importance of normalizing those with a disability.  As Nancy Mairs put it in her article, the media portrays people with disabilities like "an illness-of-the-week."  If the media shows people with disabilities like this, people will not look at them as normal people with just the difference of disability, but something completely different from them.  It is very important in our society that we think of and treat people with a disability as normal.  This is especially true in soldiers coming home from war.  It has been recorded that 675,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been "granted disability."  That is an enormous amount of soldiers who went away without a disability and came home with one.  The transition to being disabled, in addition to dealing with the war, must take a huge mental toll on those veterans.  Us fellow Americans need to do as much as possible for these veterans, as they have sacrificed so much for us and this country.  One place to start is with the goal of Nancy Mairs: normalize disability.  If we can do that those soldiers will not feel even more out of place with their new disabilities.  This will grant them an easier transition from the war back home.  It is the least we can do for those who gave up so much for us.